Friday the 13th (1980)

All Critics (54) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (33) | Rotten (22) | DVD (27)

For all its shoddiness, the film manages, just barely, to achieve its ignoble goals -- it delivers what it promises.

September 26, 2007 Full Review | Comments (3)

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

A tame, poorly plotted serving of schlock, less horrific for its ketchup-smeared murders than for the bare-faced fashion in which it tries and fails to rip off Carpenter's Halloween in matters of style and construction.

January 26, 2006 Full Review | Comments (2)

Time Out

Top Critic

The whole film is one of the best arguments for resuming movie censorship to come along in years.

March 7, 2005 Full Review

Joseph Litsch

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Top Critic

It depicts what is surely the first recorded instance of the game "Strip Monopoly" and would later inspire Wet Hot American Summer, and we should all be grateful for that.

October 15, 2012 Full Review

Simon Miraudo

Quickflix

Beware of this infamous, sadistic slasher film.

December 15, 2010 Full Review | Comments (2)

Charles Cassady

Common Sense Media

It hasn't aged well; its nonstyle renders it pretty sedate these days.

October 19, 2010 Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

Within the dead-teenie realm it achieves a certain classicism

September 6, 2009 Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Has there ever been a more unimaginative exercise in big-screen terror?

August 21, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)

Rob Nelson

City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul

What makes the movie work is that the slasher genre hadn't been set in stone yet, and some choices that director Sean S. Cunningham makes in the film that work against type.

March 5, 2009 Full Review | Comments (3)

Kevin Carr

7M Pictures

a campfire boogeyman story designed to do little more than build tension and deliver a few well-timed shocks, which it does with precision and even a bit of artistry

February 14, 2009 Full Review | Comments (2)

James Kendrick

Q Network Film Desk

Timed to coincide with the release of its 2009 remake, Friday the 13th was re-released on standard DVD and got its Blu-ray debut.

February 13, 2009 Full Review

Brian Webster

Apollo Guide

How do you sum up a movie that's really quite awful yet helped define a filmmaking era?

February 13, 2009 Full Review

Brian Webster

Apollo Guide

Whether you want to credit or blame Friday the 13th for its role in influencing modern cineplex cinema is a matter of taste. [Blu-ray]

February 10, 2009 Full Review

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews

• 1. Alice: The boy...
  2. Sgt. Tierney: What boy?
  3. Alice: The little boy, Jason! The one who pulled me underneath the water!
  4. Sgt. Tierney: Man... we didn´t find any boy.
  5. Alice: Then he is still there...
  – Submitted by André A (11 months ago)
• 1. Dorf: What you been smoking, boy?
  2. Jack: Smoke? Don't smoke cause cancer?
  3. Jack: You know what I mean! What, you just get off a spaceship or something? Come on, Coloumbian gold, man. Hash, the grass, the weed, dig it?
  – Submitted by Bria M (11 months ago)
• 1. Crazy Ralph: You're going to Camp Blood, ain't ya?
  2. Truck Driver: Goddammit, Ralph, get outta here! Go on, get! Leave people alone!
  3. Crazy Ralph: You'll never come back again.
  4. Truck Driver: Oh, shut up, Ralph.
  5. Crazy Ralph: It's got a death curse!
  – Submitted by Rocky F (14 months ago)
• 1. Mrs. Voorhees: Jason was my son, and today is his birthday.
  – Submitted by Danny M (16 months ago)
• 1. Mrs. Voorhees: Look what you did to him!
  – Submitted by Noah G (20 months ago)
• 1. Mrs. Voorhees: Kill her, Mommy! Kill her!
  – Submitted by Noah G (20 months ago)

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